American Beauty

I can see some side of me with every character in the movie, but I can
especially relate to Ricky the weird son of the colonel and love interest of Jane.
Having a retired colonel father, Ricky was subjected to a disciplined life. He was
even forced to enter military school and whats more, a mental hospital. What his
father suspects but didnt confirm was that he still is a marijuana smoker and
became a drug dealer. He was known as weird, strange and crazy guy. I remember
a scene where Angela was talking to Jane about how disgusting Ricky is. As
expected of someone who had entered a mental hospital, no one wants to befriend
Ricky. As an addition to his atrocity, he always has his video camera that he uses to
film everything and everybody he wants. His concept of beauty is very different
from the majority. He finds beauty in unusual things. He pays attention to the
things most people dont. His character in the story is always condemned by the
common people and unwelcomed in the society for he thinks differently than most
do.
Ricky has a low self-esteem. He hardly gets along with others. He is not
competent and does not have something in which the society sees one should use
intellectual and physical capacity. In the matters concerning self-efficacy, he also
has a low one. His character portrays someone who has no optimistic belief in his
own abilities. As Ive mentioned earlier, he has no sense of competence and selfconfidence. He is rather anxious and depressed by their way of living with his
introvert mother and tyrannical father. His self-presentation, or how he wants
others to believe he is, for me is good yet unusual. He talks and acts how he wants
to and not based on how anyone expects of him. He does not mask his true
identity, yet it is unusual that it is to the point that he doesnt even care how others
might think of him. He does not conform to the societys normal behaviour in a
negative sense that hes insensitive whether he disturbs others feelings towards
something.
After watching the movie, I still kept wondering why it was entitled
American Beauty. But after looking at Rickys character, I realized that every
character has his/her own concept of beauty. The setting of the movie was in
America. America is known for its liberalization and thus, the movie has its own
representation of America as a whole where people have different perceptions of
beauty. Each character represents how he/she appreciates or where he/she can find
beauty. Beauty here can also be satisfaction. For example, how Carolyn is in her silk
sofa that she even ruined her husbands momentum of love making with her to
preserve it. As support to this, I have read an article where it explains the scene
where Ricky fascinatedly looked at Lesters dead eyes. Sam Mendes (the director)
said that this scene expresses "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is
found where it is least expected -- as excerpted from Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 27.
Submitted by:
Rivera, Melisa Joy Cruz
TTH 1-2:30 class